SQL, 6.21.11

We’ll start off today’s post with some science-y stuff I’ve been meaning to get to.

–First we have this, which describes, in detail, the latest research on the preponderance of black holes in our Universe and their impact on building the cosmos. While this may not affect your day-to-day, I always enjoy learning about the reality of our situation and how we got here.

After reading stories that have us on a path to augmented hyper-humans, I can’t help but look forward to a time when a combination of genetic manipulation and hardware has humans as a similar but more efficient species. We’re on a path that has us turbo-boosting Darwin, and I’m sure when (not if) that time comes, it’ll be a time filled with delicious controversy…be it moral, ethical, biological and even religious.

How exciting.

–As a kiddo, I despised bees.

They stung me often and I held a grudge. I sought revenge by smushing as many as I could for a while there, and, for that, I’m pretty regretful these days.

Asshole +5.

As if their widespread struggles weren’t enough of a burden on my guilt-ridden psyche, now comes this (source: Current Biology).

Honeybees have become the first invertebrates to exhibit pessimism, a benchmark cognitive trait supposedly limited to “higher” animals.

If these honeybee blues are interpreted as they would be in dogs or horses or humans, then insects might have feelings.

–Brandon Keim, Wired.com

In the supremely underrated 1983 classic, ‘WarGames’ (it holds up phenomenally well), Dr. Falken guesses that, if humans were to go extinct, the bees would be the next species to rise to global dominance.

I’m not typically one for government intrusion on matters of advertising, but this is a public health issue…the dollars cigs cost all of us in health care makes this a more-than-worthwhile act from the U.S. Government.